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Delta Goes Big, Then Goes Home

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201–204 of 204 posts

Re: Delta Goes Big, Then Goes Home

#201
post #133
post #94

Two points: 1) Hurricanes are actually harmless to planes. The only part of the flight that includes any danger is landing, due to wind and low visibility. But flying at cruising altitude or even through the storm is fairly harmless, as most winds are horizontal and nothing out of the ordinary for a plane. Keep in mind that the NOAA regularly flies commercial jets (such as a Gulfstream V) into hurricanes. Also keep i…

As someone who has lived through some of the strongest hurricanes in recorded history you are wrong on multiple counts. Flying through the storm and the wall eye is dangerous and NOAA has lost planes to it. One of their hardened P3 had equipment and life raft ripped from their anchors [0]. There is definitely lightning and waterspouts during a hurricane. That is not reserved for thunderstorms. This was a flight to ev…

It appears from this Quora question[0] that it it is, in fact, not dangerous to fly OVER a hurricane. The keyword is over.

[0] https://www.quora.com/Is-it-dangerous-to-fly-over-a-hurrican...

Re: Delta Goes Big, Then Goes Home

#202
post #89

Commercial pilot here, currently flying transatlantic routes. I avoided Irma last week while flying to Buenos Aires (it was not this big yet). I have partners in San Juan at this moment, bunkered in the hotel. We see this as a crazy move, very well executed, but too risky for the plane itself (not so much for the crew). Let me explain, the metar and tafors (the airport meteorological reports we use) during the flight…

Did you fly Atlanta - Buenos Aires? I flew on Wednesday 6th. Were you my pilot? :)

Re: Delta Goes Big, Then Goes Home

#203
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'll take that as a "no" that you don't have any citations or professional/academic experience to talk about airframe stress dynamics in a hurricane.

What citations would you like beyond basic reasoning skills? Planes don't fly relative to the ground, they fly relative to the air. Unless the wind is gusting from 0 to 160 (which is not how hurricanes work), there is nothing to be discussed here. The earth rotates at 1000 MPH and you don't see people wondering if cars can handle that. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/34433/how-are-e...

Because air moves in more than one direction. Wind shear is a serious threat to passenger aircraft.

Re: Delta Goes Big, Then Goes Home

#204
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the context. The other comments make it feel like this was extremely risky. Like "moving spacecrafts through closing doors". You give it more context

But they give ZERO source for their claims. It seems like you're looking for a particular point of view here.

Yeah you might be right, I just took it at face value. Also, I'm pretty unaware of the specific realities in the interaction between planes and the weather.

Thanks for pointing this out though

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